Thomas Silva (XDS-Astana) became the first Uruguayan rider to win a Grand Tour stage on stage 2 of the Giro d'Italia, speeding to the line at the head of a select lead group to win in Veliko Tarnovo, Bulgaria.
Silva led home Florian Stork (Tudor) and Giulio Ciccone (Lidl-Trek) at the finish as part of a large chase group, which caught the attacking trio of Jonas Vingegaard (Visma-Lease a Bike), Giulio Pellizzari (Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe), and Lennert Van Eetvelt (Lotto-Intermarché) inside the final kilometre of the 221km stage.
The trio had gone clear on the final climb of the day, the Lyaskovets Monastery Pass, which peaked 11km from the finish, and after building a 20-second lead, it looked certain that they would contest the win among themselves.
However, the chasers, led by Jan Christen (UAE Team Emirates-XRG), surprisingly made their way back across in the uphill closing kilometres. XDS-Astana were best placed in the final run to the line, with Cristian Scaroni hitting the front for the final sprint.
The Italian led out Silva, who just about took the win in a photo finish and took the maglia rosa of race leader in the process.
Silva now holds the race lead by four seconds from Stork, while Egan Bernal (Netcompany Ineos) is third overall, also four seconds down, having picked up six bonus seconds earlier in the stage.
"I'm delighted. This is only the second stage of my first Giro d'Italia, and I'm the winner. It was a bit unexpected. I'm speechless," Silva said after the stage.
"I knew I came with a good shape, but I also knew that it's very hard to win a stage of a Grand Tour. Having won in the first few days will give us a lot of serenity. It was a hard final, but I've ridden at the front thanks to Christian Scaroni, who was very active.
"As for myself, I just had to keep calm and launch the sprint at the right time to conquer a huge win for myself. I have to say a big thanks to my team. For myself, this is the maximum I could hope for"
How it unfolded
Polti VisitMalta teammates Diego Pablo Sevilla and Mirco Maestri went out in the early breakaway (Image credit: Getty Images)
The second stage of the Giro d'Italia was the race's second day in Bulgaria, taking the peloton on a long day out covering 221km from Burgas to Veliko Tarnovo.
The stage began with a largely flat run for the first 100km before giving way to the third-category hills of Byala Pass (7.7km at 4.6%) and Vratnik Pass (9.2km at 4%) before a lumpy run over the second half of the stage. A late hill – Lyaskovets Monastery Pass (3.9km at 6.6%) – provided a potential launchpad for the stage win.
Right from the stage start, a pair of Polti-VisitMalta riders jumped clear to form the breakaway of the day. Mountain classification leader Diego Pablo Sevilla was joined in the move by teammate Mirco Maestri, with the peloton happy to let them ride off up the road.
The duo raced to a lead of over five minutes as NSN put a rider on the front of the peloton to control the situation. The break's advantage fell as the race neared the two mid-stage climbs, but even then, the two leaders still held an advantage of 4:30.
Maestri was, of course, working for his teammate Sevilla to rack up more mountain points, and the Spaniard duly did just that over the Byala Pass and Vratnik Pass.
He led the way over both hills to add a total of 18 points to his mountain points tally, taking his total to 24 points, well ahead of the new second-placed man, Maestri, on eight points.
Ryan Mullen (NSN) did massive pulls at the front of the peloton (Image credit: Getty Images)
Racing through the rain and then down the other side of the Vratnik Pass, the leaders' gap fell further. As they raced into the final 80km, their advantage was down to 2:20. Further back was an ill Arnaud De Lie (Lotto-Intermarché), a minute off the rear of the peloton over the climbs.
The Belgian would eventually get back on, but the ride continued to be a grim one for him and the rest of the riders as the rain continued to pour.
The two leaders kept ploughing onwards as their lead dropped further, with the time gap dropping under two minutes as they raced into the final 50km of the day. That time gap would finally hit the minute mark as Sevilla and Maestri reached the 33km to go mark.
NSN still led the peloton there, with other teams including Visma-Lease a Bike and Netcompany Ineos also at the front of the peloton. They finally brought the two breakaway men back with 27km to go, setting up a final battle over the late Lyaskovets Monastery Pass.
A major crash in the peloton at 22km to go saw a host of notable names, including Derek Gee-West (Lidl-Trek), Adam Yates (UAE Team Emirates-XRG), and Michael Storer (Tudor) caught up.
The race was neutralised – very briefly – as a result. Jay Vine (UAE Team Emirates-XRG) wouldn't continue, but racing got back underway for the final 18km, with Egan Bernal (Netcompany Ineos) grabbing six bonus seconds at the Red Bull Kilometre shortly afterwards.
Giulio Pellizzari (Red Bull-BORA-hansgrohe), Lennert Van Eetvelt (Lotto-Intermarché) and Jonas Vingegaard (Visma-Lease a Bike) in late stage breakaway (Image credit: Getty Images)
Upon reaching the final climb of the day, it was Visma-Lease a Bike who led the way up, and Jonas Vingegaard duly launched his first attack of the race just over 11km from the finish.
The Dane led the race over the top of the climb with Giulio Pellizzari and Lennert Van Eetvelt following in his wheel. The trio quickly built a 10-second lead on the way down, one which grew to 20 seconds at the 5km mark despite the larger chase group behind.
They pushed on into the final kilometres of the day, though a late slowdown inside the final 3km saw the chase group close in. Jan Christen was the first to jump across the gap, while the rest of the group followed to make the connection at just 500 metres to go.
The former lead trio were swamped on the final dash to the line as XDS-Astana moved to the front. Scaroni pushed hard in one final lead-out effort for his teammate Silva, helping his 24-year-old teammate to a famous win on the second day of his second career Grand Tour outing.
Dani Ostanek is Senior News Writer at Cyclingnews, having joined in 2017 as a freelance contributor, later being hired full-time. Her favourite races include Strade Bianche, the Tour de France Femmes, Paris-Roubaix, and Tro-Bro Léon.
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